
Long COVID disrupts struggles for justice, as activists and organizers with the disease are forced to suspend or change their tactics, facing a community that largely ignores COVID precautions.

Artist Gillian Levine recently wrote and illustrated a comic sharing reasons to continue masking in 2026.

Despite a lack of COVID-19 precautions implemented by the 2026 Winter Olympics organizers in Italy, some athletes, teams, and their loved ones are protecting themselves from airborne pathogens by masking and isolating.

Illustrators who bravely explore the ongoing pandemic in their work break down stereotypes, contextualize differing experiences, build community, and raise awareness. These artists create spaces where audiences can reflect and engage with stories that can broaden our understanding of ourselves and the world.

Utah’s proposed ban became an important case study demonstrating the overlapping concerns between airborne pathogens and environmental air pollution. It highlighted the necessity of building coalitions between environmental, health and disability, and civil liberties groups in resisting mask bans as climate change is on track to worsen a variety of environmental public health threats, not…

While some anti-mask policies have failed — a win for workers — there is a larger effort to ban masks in the U.S. on state and local levels. And more businesses may attempt to ban masks in the workplace even though these policies may violate laws that protect masks as accessibility devices. The Sick Times…

In May, The Sick Times published an op-ed about a novel bill in Illinois that would enshrine the right to wear medical masks into that state’s law. The op-ed’s author, a writer and advocate who was part of the coalition behind the bill, wrote that advocates in several other states had worked on similar legislation.…

Anti-mask laws are discriminatory and dangerous, and so I and other disability advocates across the country are stepping up to counter criminalizing with codifying: our bills would enshrine the right to mask in public spaces in state law.

Games uniquely incorporate emotional and social factors that influence how we take in information — making them surprisingly useful communication tools in a world in denial about the ongoing threats of COVID-19 and Long COVID. Whether through the cathartic storytelling in indie designers’ interactive theater projects or learning opportunities woven into popular video games, playing…

When compared to other masks, only N-95s were found to meet or to be close to occupational health standards, according to a small study published in PLOS One. The study found that N95s had 97-99% filtration efficiency (without fit testing), compared to KN94 and KN95 masks, which were found to have around 70% filtration efficiency.
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